Members of the Serb Orthodox Church in Croatia on Friday morning attended Christmas services held in Orthodox churches in accordance with the Julian calendar.

During the ceremonies, the Christmas message of the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Porfirije,  was read.

At the liturgy held in the Serb Orthodox Church of the Holy Transfiguration in the downtown Zagreb, the head of the  Eparchy of Marca read Porfirije’s Christmas epistle in which the dignitary greeted Christmas “with extraordinary respect and gratitude, to all the physicians and medical professionals. “I pray for the ill to recover promptly and for the plague that has attacked the world to pass,” Patriarch Porfirije wrote in his message.

Porfirije also believes that “coronavirus is a pedagogical reprimand to human beings to restart complying with God’s rules.

Christmas services were held in several churches in Vinkovci-Vukovar County.

Cardinal Josip Bozanic of the Zagreb Catholic Archdiocese also sent a Christmas message to Orthodox dignitaries and faithful.